


Only human

by bamfleur



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Drabble, F/M, I cried while writing this just so you know, I'm Sorry, I'm part of the Chaol Westfall defense squad, One Shot, chaelin, chaolaena - Freeform, forever crying about chaolaena, still new to this, this is probably set somewhen between QOS and EOS, who cares about shipnames when you are too busy drying your tears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 20:31:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8071708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bamfleur/pseuds/bamfleur
Summary: "Why was there never time for anything? He wished for more midnight dances and chocolate wars. For no battlefields where you drowned in a sea of blood and politics like spiderwebs, laying traps and wrong turns everywhere. For them just to be Chaol and Aelin, two young people finding their way back to each other."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a painful quick drabble of our precious human son. I finished EOS and my heart just needed some Chaoalena to sooth my (sunken) ship, but who cares, I'm still aboard ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ See u all in hell

Chaol Westfall knew he would die.

Knew it the moment he saw his own reflection, bloody and dirty, flashing in the blade that drove towards his heart with inhuman speed. He knew he was too slow, mere human reflexes not fast enough to keep up with the speed of creatures bred and born in the deepest hell under the Mountains of Morath. Knew that he was probably sucking in his last breath right now. Knew, that if he had magic, or witch blood, or fae agility, or hell _anything_ \- it would have been easy for him to avert the weapon.

But Chaol Westfall was only human. He moved anyway, fully knowing that he was too slow. Still trying to avoid the unavoidable. _I’m sorry_ , he thought. _I’m sorry._ Sorry for not being able to make it to his friends, to warn them. Sorry for being too weak to fight the evil that had hunted him. Sorry for dying alone in the snow- covered peaks of the White Fang mountains. Alone - That word struck him. He would die alone. _Alone, alone, alone._ He felt a pang in his chest, in that second before he would be dead. Never had he thought that he would be crossing the side utterly and completely alone. They would probably never find his body. He was lost in harsh, white cold, no living thing daring to live here. _But too late, too late_. It had been his choice to go on the mission after all, and he had succeeded - Even if his friends would never find out. They would search for him, for answers, only to find nothing.

Dorian. Aedion. Rowan. Nesryn. Lysandra. Aelin. Oh, Aelin. He repeated their names as often as could in his head, a mantra to keep the ice from shooting through his bones in the face of death. Because he was afraid - Had been afraid, _so_ afraid for the past days - at the thought of dying. He wondered how the others did it - To face the danger so fearlessly. Chaol wished he could be brave. He was so young. He _felt_ young. Wasn’t there so much left to explore in his life? Even with the war going on, deep in his heart Chaol had always clung to the hope of growing old. Aelin at his side, because he still loved her. Loved Celanea still- but he would learn to love all of her, every part, from the assassin down to the queen. He wanted to learn about her magic, all the fire and light she was. There were so many layers and and hidden secrets in that girl- _woman_ \- of wildfire and night, but he was willing to crack all the shells. To find all the puzzle pieces. To put them together and heal all her wounds. He could rattle her stars, if only he dared.

And Chaol knew she would do the same - Because there wasn’t a single fibre in his body that believed that she didn’t love him too. _“I’d pick you. I’ll always pick you.”_ Her words echoed in his mind, and he felt a bit of his fear seeping away. He would learn to get to know her, and if it took years to finally understand Aelin Ashryver Galathynius. Hell, maybe he would never understand her fully. But as long as he still felt that bond between them - Raw and fragile as it was after all they had gone through, but with the promise of growing into something so pure and strong that he wanted to cry - Chaol was okay. He was okay.

The blade was close now. He distantly wondered how he could still think about so much, but maybe it was like this for everyone. Time slowing down. Either panicking or accepting. Accpting, could he do that? Letting go? Still fighting- never, ever stopping to fight- but knowing that it was too late? Chaol took his last breath. _Yes. He could do that._ For all of them. To muster his last amount of courage, for everyone he had ever loved. So, he let the fear disappear like a cloud of smoke, blown away by the blant fact that he could do nothing anyway. He watched his arm being too slow to block the creature’s attack. Just- Accept. A calm settled over the Captain of the Guard.

He would make it home to his friends, and Aelin. He would play pranks with Lysandra on Rowan. He would train with Aedion, and walk through the streets of Rifthold with Nesryn. He would play with Fleefoot and laugh with Dorian until his stomach hurt. Gods, how he wished Dorian at least would be at his side, fighting the shadow creatures in this icy realm of death. Dorian, the only true friend he had known for a long time. And Aelin. Thinking of her name alone was like a promise of a life he had only been able to catch glimpses at. Full of light and wonder it was. Why was there never _time_ for anything? He wished for more midnight dances, and chocolate wars. For no battlefields where you drowned in a sea of blood and politics like spiderwebs, laying traps and wrong turns everywhere. For them just to be Chaol and Aelin, two young people finding their way back to each other.

He raised his eyes to meet the cold, soulless eyes of the thing that would kill him. The world around them seemed to halt, snowflakes frozen in their mindless dancing. Then the blade found his heart and drove in with a sickening crunch, tearing through muscle and bone and flesh. Searing pain shot through his body, exploding, agonizing _pain_ \- And next came the darkness, descending upon him faster than he would have thought possible. He tried to scramble back to the light, to not let death dim his flame... But it got darker and darker. He felt as if some gravity pulled him downwards in a bottomless hole, he was falling with no anchor to bring him back.

And then there was nothing.

Silence.

For a moment something like faint laughter, sounding remarkably like Dorian’s and Aelin’s, echoed through the quiet.

Chaol smiled, before that, was gone too.


End file.
